The airbase at Ladd Field brought thousands of newcomers into the frontiercommunity of Fairbanks, which in 1940 was a small remote town of only afew thousand people. The base had to provide housing, food, equipment, andrecreation for this new inux of military and civilian people. As the aireld grewfrom its own frontier beginnings as a small air station, so did many aspects of lifeat Ladd Field.

Military Quarters

The original design for Ladd Field called for a smallpermanent garrison, with quarters provided near theaireld for ofcers, NCOs, and Air Corps enlistedmen. These buildings of reinforced concrete and steelwere designed for peacetime construction, when labor,materials, and time were more plentiful than they wouldbe after the onset of war. These permanent buildingscould take up to two years to construct.Consequently, when Gen. Arnold ordered Ladd Fieldto begin operations ahead of schedule in September1940, not all the permanent quarters were ready. In themeantime, some ofcers had to be housed in town in apartments or hotels. Afew stayed in converted cabins. The rst ground crews who arrived in September1940 were apparently housed in temporary barracks. Enlisted men from otherunits, such as the 4

The commander’s house (1048) was one of the rst set of quarters to becompleted, followed by ofcers’ family housing (1047), NCO quarters (1049,1051), and the BOQ, bachelor’s ofcers’ quarters (1045). Post adjutant Lt.Marvin Walseth and his wife Phyllis moved into the family quarters in March1941. Phyllis wrote home to family that “Nothing I can say can possibly tell youhow nice they are for Alaska.”

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She described the cream-colored row houseas having hardwood oors, a living/dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms andtwo baths, with electric appliances in the kitchen and a beautiful stainless steelsink. Shared facilities included a laundry room, play room, and store room in thebasement. The Quartermaster provided some but not all of the furnishings. TheWalseths considered themselves lucky to have the unit. Only seven were availablebut there were 16 married ofcers assigned to the eld. The others had to remainin town. As it turned out, however, married ofcers were only allowed to live on

Figure 62.

Junior ofcers’ cabin, ca 1940-1941.This cabin was lost to re in February 1941.Courtesy Richard Dennison.

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Air Corps Capt. Clyde Sherman rented an apartment in town. He remembered waiting every morning for a car thatpicked up ofcers from town and brought them in to Ladd. Invariably someone in the group would be delayed, causing them allto arrive late. Clyde Sherman interviewed by Margaret Van Cleve, 15 February 1991, UAF Alaska and Polar Regions DepartmentArchives. His remarks appear to refer to events in the fall of 1941. “55 Soldiers and Ofcers Arriving by Train Today for LaddField Air Corps,”

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner,

21 September 1940.

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Walseth information from “The Flying History of Major Marvin Walseth,” unpublished compilation of lettersbetween Marvin and Phyllis Walseth and family members. Courtesy Steve Dennis.

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The World War II Heritage of Ladd Field

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the base with their families for a short time. After the United States entered thewar, military dependents were ordered to leave the Territory.The Air Corps barracks for enlisted men was located in the south wing of amultiple purpose building that would eventually also house the PX, theater, andhospital. It took somewhat longer to complete than the smaller ofcers’ andNCO quarters. Eventually this barracks could house 250 enlisted men. Today thebuilding serves as Post Headquarters.In October 1941, a visiting Air Inspector described the condition of Ladd’sbarracks. He was impressed with the permanent quarters. “The new permanentbuildings nearing completion…are the best I have ever seen. There is little doubtthat morale of troops living therein will be materially improved.” Others agreed,recalling that the permanent quarters were “rst class.”

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New recruits andnew arrivals at the eld were frequently housed at the Air Corps barracks whileawaiting assignment to quarters. Stan Jurek remembered arriving there withthe 6

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Air Depot Group in July 1942 and being very favorably impressed. “[I]twas the best accommodations we had from the time I started in the service…itwas really a pleasant surprise.” Temporary barracks, not surprisingly, were lesscomfortable. “The temporary barracks already completed and occupied areextremely drab,” the Air Inspector reported. “Steps should immediately be takento improve the appearance of the interior of barracks, recreation facilities andmess halls.”

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Whether that was ever done is not known, but as more troopsarrived at Ladd Field, more and more men were assigned to temporary quarters.New areas of temporary quarters sprouted up as Ladd expanded during the war,until Ladd could accommodate 4,555 uniformed personnel. One of the rst areasto be constructed was the Coast Artillery Garrison located near the river bendsouthwest of the runway. Eventually, temporary quarters also existed north of therunways on both sides of the horseshoe, in what were then zones 100 and 200,southeast of the aireld in zone 900, southwest of the aireld in zones 300 and400, and westward in zones 500 and 600 near today’s main gate and Glass Park.These temporary quarters included Quonset huts, Pacic huts, 800-series (CCC-style) barracks, Loxstave barracks, and Theater of Operations (T/O) barracks.

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Each type of barracks had its own characteristics. The 800-series barracks,described in contemporary records as “CCC type” buildings, were prefabricatedwood panel structures similar to wood frame construction with drop siding andtar paper roofs. Thirty of these barracks were built at Ladd, measuring 20 ft by120 ft. Each could house 40 men. Another 800-series barracks was built to house245 personnel and was constructed with several wings. Loxstave barracks wereconstructed from pre-fabricated kits of notched lumber with built-up walls. Onlythree of those were in use at Ladd, housing only 16 men each. T/O barrackswere constructed from rough lumber and were intended to be among the mosttemporary of the wartime buildings. Ten of these were in Ladd’s inventory. Mostof them, like the CCC type barracks, measured 20 x 120 feet and housed 40

“Air Transport Command Construction,” MHR, Jan. 1945. Although available records do not show precisely whereeach type was located, plot plans and diagrams indicate the footprint of buildings on the base, and several aerial photos providefurther details. See Appendix D for examples of plot plans.

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men. One T/O barracks was completedin March 1945 to house the Women’sArmy Corps (WAC) squadron of approximately 150 women. Thisbuilding was a U-shaped two-storybarracks with a one-story rear sectioncontaining kitchen, mess hall and dayroom. It was lost to re only a fewmonths after completion.Quonset and Pacic huts featuredprefabricated sectional units witharched sides and roof. The maindistinctions between the two typeswere in materials. Quonsets weremanufactured primarily from metal, while Pacic huts employed more plywood.At Ladd, Pacic huts predominated: 184 of them were used as barracks,compared to 35 Quonsets used for that purpose. Records also list another 27civilian huts but their style was not identied. It was common to see groups of three huts connected to a central wood frame building which contained the coalstove.When Bill Stroecker rst enlisted at Ladd in May1942, he quickly rose to the rank of buck sergeantand was assigned to barracks on the North Post.“To begin with when it was simply the post,” herecalled, “why I lived up in a special room forsergeants…. It was the best quarters in the wholebarracks. Everybody else was out in the bay. Aftera while there got to be more staff sergeants, infact they were still out in the bay [although] theyoutranked me. So they made a big issue out of it.The fellows I was living with, staff and techs…they preferred me being in there so they put upa big ght and I never did move! Until I gottransferred to the 6

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Air Depot Group and then theaccommodations weren’t quite so luxurious.” His new quarters were Quonset orPacic huts in the 300 zone, southwest of the aireld. “There wasn’t much, justsimply bunks and a place to pass the time,” he stated. He remembered that thecoal came up from the…coal mine outside of Healy. “[S]ome of that coal was sowet and full of clay and the fumes from that…I remember being so sick inhalingthose fumes ’cause there wasn’t good ventilation. But it was better than a tent.”He kept such things in perspective, though, in the spirit of the times.Stan Jurek was quartered in the huts west of the horseshoe. He remembers thatthe huts in that area were scattered in the woods and housed a dozen men each.“It was just a cot and a place to hang your rie under the bunk. Little shelf tohang a few of your clothes.” He remembered, “Ours was named PneumoniaGulch, next one was Snake Pit, and they were all really pretty cold living quartersin the wintertime.” The men had to pay someone in the group to take a turnstaying awake at night to make sure the re didn’t go out in the potbellied stove.